# memccpy

From cppreference.com
< c‎ | string‎ | byte

Defined in header ``<string.h>`` |  |
void* memccpy( void* restrict dest, const void* restrict src, int c, size_t count ); |  | (since C23)

Copies bytes from the object pointed to by src to the object pointed to by dest, stopping after any of the next two conditions are satisfied:

  - count bytes are copied
  - the byte (unsigned char)c is found (and copied).

The src and dest objects are interpreted as arrays of unsigned char.

The behavior is undefined if any condition is met:

  - access occurs beyond the end of the dest array;
  - the objects overlap (which is a violation of the `restrict` contract)
  - either dest or src is an invalid or null pointer

### Parameters

dest | - | pointer to the object to copy to
src | - | pointer to the object to copy from
c | - | terminating byte, converted to unsigned char at first
count | - | number of bytes to copy

### Return value

If the byte (unsigned char)c was found, `memccpy` returns a pointer to the next byte in dest after (unsigned char)c. Otherwise it returns a null pointer.

### Notes

The function is identical to the POSIX `memccpy`.

memccpy(dest, src, 0, count) behaves similar to strncpy(dest, src, count), except that the former returns a pointer to the end of the buffer written, and does not zero-pad the destination array. Thus, `memccpy` is useful for efficiently concatenating multiple strings.

    char bigString[1000];
    char* end = bigString + sizeof bigString;

    char* p = memccpy(bigString, "John, ", '\0', sizeof bigString - 1);
    if (p)
        p = memccpy(p - 1, "Paul, ", '\0', end - p);
    if (p)
        p = memccpy(p - 1, "George, ", '\0', end - p);
    if (p)
        p = memccpy(p - 1, "Joel ", '\0', end - p);
    if (!p)
        end[-1] = '\0';

    puts(bigString); // John, Paul, George, Joel

### Example

Run this code

    #include <ctype.h>
    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <string.h>

    int main(void)
    {
        const char src[] = "Stars: Altair, Sun, Vega.";
        const char terminal[] = {':', ' ', ',', '.', '!'};
        char dest[sizeof src];
        const char alt = '@';

        for (size_t i = 0; i != sizeof terminal; ++i)
        {
            void* to = memccpy(dest, src, terminal[i], sizeof dest);

            printf("Terminal '%c' (%s):\t\"", terminal[i], to ? "found" : "absent");

            // if `terminal` character was not found - print the whole `dest`
            to = to ? to : dest + sizeof dest;

            for (char* from = dest; from != to; ++from)
                putchar(isprint(*from) ? *from : alt);

            puts("\"");
        }

        puts("\n" "Separate star names from distances (ly):");
        const char *star_distance[] = {
            "Arcturus : 37", "Vega : 25", "Capella : 43", "Rigel : 860", "Procyon : 11"
        };
        char names_only[64];
        char *first = names_only;
        char *last = names_only + sizeof names_only;

        for (size_t t = 0; t != (sizeof star_distance) / (sizeof star_distance[0]); ++t)
        {
            if (first)
                first = memccpy(first, star_distance[t], ' ', last - first);
            else
                break;
        }

        if (first)
        {
            *first = '\0';
            puts(names_only);
        }
        else
            puts("Buffer is too small.");
    }

Output:

    Terminal ':' (found):   "Stars:"
    Terminal ' ' (found):   "Stars: "
    Terminal ',' (found):   "Stars: Altair,"
    Terminal '.' (found):   "Stars: Altair, Sun, Vega."
    Terminal '!' (absent):  "Stars: Altair, Sun, Vega.@"

    Separate star names from distances (ly):
    Arcturus Vega Capella Rigel Procyon

### See also

memcpymemcpy_s (C11) | copies one buffer to another (function)
wmemcpywmemcpy_s (C95)(C11) | copies a certain amount of wide characters between two non-overlapping arrays (function)
memmovememmove_s (C11) | moves one buffer to another (function)
strcpystrcpy_s (C11) | copies one string to another (function)
strcatstrcat_s (C11) | concatenates two strings (function)

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